Justice for Dr. Bascone Comes Three Decades Later
Dr. Katherine Bascone’s death in February 2018 made George Guo, the man who strangled and raped her 30 years ago, a murderer — a judgment confirmed by Dallas County jurors this week.
The capital murder conviction means former surgeon Guo, 58, will spend the rest of his life in prison, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced.
“There’s nothing worse in this world than when evil finds innocence and destroys it — and while death doesn’t distinguish between the sinners and the saints, justice does,” lead prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni told jurors in closing arguments near the end of the two-week trial. “Justice will hold those who murder accountable. It will hold those who rape accountable.”
After Bascone died in hospice care, the Tulsa, Oklahoma medical examiner ruled her death a homicide. The brain injury she suffered in the June 19, 1988, attack left her blind and confined to a bed at age 28 and eventually caused her death, Dr. Jeremy Shelton determined.
According to the DA’s office, Shelton then reached out to the Highland Park Department of Public Safety to request any evidence that might still be in custody from the attack.
The department had some and also checked with the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences about the DNA sexual assault kit from 1988. Testing the kit identified George Guo as the culprit.
Previous cases against Guo include a burglary of a habitation conviction in 1991 for breaking into the apartment of a 19-year-old SMU student. Police broke down the door and caught Guo beginning to sexually assault the woman, according to the district attorney’s office.
He had a ski mask, mace, screwdrivers, a class cutter, condoms, and syringes filled with “hospital grade” sedatives in his possession, the district attorney’s office said.
In 1999, he was caught breaking into a home in a Houston suburb and later convicted of intent to commit sexual assault of a juvenile girl. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was released from prison in 2013.
